David Elliott is the author of several books for young readers, including the NEW YORK TIMES best-selling picture book AND HERE'S TO YOU! He lives in Warner, New Hampshire.
Holly Meade (1956-2013) wrote and illustrated IF I NEVER FOREVER ENDEAVOR. She earned a Caldecott Honor for her illustrations in HUSH! A THAI LULLABY by Minfong Ho. She also illustrated AND THEN COMES HALLOWEEN by Tom Brenner; ON THE FARM, IN THE WILD, and IN THE SEA by David Elliott; and many others.
By his own admission, David Elliott was “very peripatetic” in his youth, but after living in the Philippines, Palau, Israel, Mexico, Libya, Boston, and Columbus, Ohio, the children’s book author finally settled in the countryside. “Neither my wife nor I had lived in the country before,” he explains. “And the many required adjustments perplexed and sometimes dismayed us (they still do!).” For the talented writer and professor however, inspiration has come along with the challenges of rural living.
“Six months or so after we had begun to settle into our 180-year-old house, I found myself waking up, night after night, at just past 4:00 AM. It took a few nights, but I discovered the culprit—my neighbor’s rooster,” the author says. “At first I wanted to strangle that bird, but on the sixth or seventh night, I began to appreciate him. He’s simply following his nature, I thought. There was a great comfort in that.” And it’s thanks to that bird that readers can enjoy David Elliott’s work And Here’s to You!, an exuberant ode to joy illustrated by Randy Cecil. “One night, in that hypnogogic state between sleep and consciousness, I woke up with these worlds floating through my head: ‘Here’s to the birds! The Feather People! Birds! Here’s to the whooo ones. The cock-a-doodle-doo ones.’ I knew I was onto something then.”
David Elliott is the author of many other children’s books, including What the Grizzly Knows, Finn Throws a Fit, and the animal poetry series including On the Farm, In the Wild, In the Sea, and On the Wing. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and son and their bearded collie, Psyche.
“The making of these pictures may be difficult,” Holly Meade (1956–2013) once said of her signature collage illustrations. “But it’s more like serious play than serious work.” The artist’s “serious play” earned her many accolades, including a Caldecott Honor for her cut-paper-and-ink illustrations in Hush! A Thai Lullaby by Minfong Ho, described by Kirkus Reviews as “exceptionally beautiful.” Holly Meade teamed up again with Mingfong Ho to create Peek! A Thai Hide-And-Seek, a gloriously illustrated tale of the familiar game, played by father and child.
Holly Meade’s unique and evolving style proved ideal to illuminate a wide range of picture books. For a trio of acclaimed books by David Elliott—On The Farm, In The Wild, and In The Sea—the artist used woodcuts for the first time, creating prints that Publishers Weekly said “are so bold they seem to crow at the reader.”
Her collage work again came to the fore in Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s lyrical Naamah And the Ark at Night, with illustrations that Booklist called “striking,” adding that author and illustrator “take a most familiar story and make it breathtakingly new.”
Holly Meade was the creative force behind If I Never Forever Endeavor, which she both wrote and illustrated. Her technique involved block print and watercolor collages that Kirkus Reviews found “stunning.” The subject—a fledgling getting ready to fly—is “a metaphor that quite appeals to most of us,” the artist said. “We want to fly, but are often afraid. We weigh the pros and cons of the next risky undertaking: will it bring wonderful returns?”
Holly Meade graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and worked as an art teacher and graphic designer before embarking on a career illustrating nearly thirty children’s books. A longtime New Englander, she drew much inspiration from the natural world around her home in coastal Maine.
